Analysis of “Prayer” by Carol Ann Duffy

Analysis of “Prayer” by Carol Ann DuffyLouise Erdrich Yue Jiang 105034154 The Prayer, written in 1993 by, Carol Ann DuffyLouise Erdrich, has a close relationship with Julia Kristeva’s essay “Revolution in Poetic Language”. According to psychoanalysis, when people are babies, they are irrational and emotional. All their need is to be cared for. Their needs should be demandedmet, either for food, or caring or other things. A baby considers the person who offers satisfies them this need as “mother”. In addition, all their language and image of the world in this stage are acquired through the mother. The essay, “Revolution in Poetic Language”, written by Julia Kristeva, selected in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism says “In this way the drives, which are ‘energy’ charges as well as ‘psychical’ marks, articulate what we call a chora: a nonexpressive totality formed by the drives and their stases in a motility that is as full of movement as it is regulated.” (Kristeva, P2170)[1]1. Another sentences in this essay also convince make this point, “The child’s first so-called holophrastic enunciations include gesture, the object, and vocal emission…. Nevertheless, they are already thetic in the sense that they separate an object from the subject, and attribute to it a semiotic fragment, which thereby becomes a signifier.” (Kristeva, P2175)2. When babies grow up, they confront the image of father, who breaks the harmonious relationship between the baby and the mother. The father makes the baby realize that it does not own the mother. It should go out of the mother’s breast and embrace the world. The baby should become rational and independent. This is another stage when people acquire language, which is called the post-Oedipal stage. After this stage, people’s main purpose of the life shifts to finding their own identity and takinge the responsibility. This is when the cognitive and conscious stage appears. After that people’s languages become objective,

References: 1. Julia Kristeva. “Revolution in Poetic Language.” in The Norton Anthology Theory and Criticism. Edited by Vincent B. Leitch. New York, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001. P2169-P2179. P2170. 2. Julia Kristeva. “Revolution in Poetic Language.” in The Norton Anthology Theory and Criticism. Edited by Vincent B. Leitch. New York, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001. P2169-P2179. P2175. 3. Julia Kristeva. “Revolution in Poetic Language.” in The Norton Anthology Theory and Criticism. Edited by Vincent B. Leitch. New York, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001. P2169-P2179. P2171. 4. Jon Stallworthy. “Versification.” in The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th edition. New York, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005. P2027-P2052. P2027. 5. Louise Erdrich. “Prayer.” in The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th edition. New York, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005. P2007-P2008. P2007. 6. Louise Erdrich. “Prayer.” in The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th edition. New York, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005. P2007-P2008. P2007 7 8. Louise Erdrich. “Prayer.” in The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th edition. New York, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005. P2007-P2008. P2008 9 Duffy, Carol Ann. “Prayer.” in The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005. 2007-2008. 1. Erdrich, Louise. “Prayer.” in The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th edition. New York, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005. 3.Stallworthy, Jon. “Versification.” in The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th edition. New York, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. : W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005. 2027-2052. 2005.